Martin County, Harmony Ranch developer head to court later this month

This was the proposed site of the Hobe Grove and Harmony Ranch developments at the intersection of I-95, Florida's Turnpike and Bridge Road in Hobe Sound, as seen in 2013. (FILE PHOTO)(Photo11: TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)Buy Photo

MARTIN COUNTY — Developer Hobe Sound Ranch is suing the county for denying requested comprehensive-plan changes it needs to build the mixed-use Harmony Ranch development, according to court documents.

For more than 20 years, Hobe Sound Ranch has been trying to build on a vast tract of vacant land near Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 95. The current zoning is agricultural, which allows Hobe Sound Ranch to develop one housing unit per 20 acres.

However, building with this zoning would be "economic suicide," and the developer bought the property “with the expectation that it would be developed as a mixed-use project," according to an amended complaint, filed Oct. 15 in Circuit Court.

Martin County, on the other hand, argues the suit is about “a failure to receive an enhancement of property rights, not a taking of property rights," the county said Oct. 30 in a motion to dismiss the suit.

A hearing in the lawsuit before Circuit Court Judge William Roby is scheduled Dec. 17.

Roby in September dismissed Hobe Sound's original complaint but allowed the developers to file an amended complaint.

The county has rejected certain land-use and zoning changes sought by Hobe Sound Ranch at least five times including, most recently, earlier this year. That denial was the impetus for the lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Martin County.

In court filings, the developer argues that Martin County has “routinely provided regulatory approvals to other landowners surrounding the property so that they could make an economically beneficial use of their lands for residential, commercial and industrial purposes.”

Hobe Sound Ranch's plan for Harmony Ranch included a mixed-use village with a town center, with elements such as a grocery store, pharmacy, bank and hardware store; single-family and multifamily residences with pools and community centers; and walkways and bike paths, the developer said in court documents.

Plans filed with the county showed 2,400 homes would be built on 2,600 acres.

The developer this year asked the county to move the primary and secondary urban-service district boundaries, and, in a separate application, to amend the future land-use designation to allow for the proposed development.

At the same time, developer Knight Kiplinger sought approvals for Pineland Prairie, also a proposed mixed-use development, located about 10 miles from the proposed Harmony Ranch site.

At separate hearings April 24 before the County Commission, commissioners voted to take the next step in advancing Pineland Prairie, but rejected advancing Harmony Ranch, which, a staff report had concluded, would create urban sprawl.